PHOTO: The Star

SINGAPORE - Convicted murderer Kho Jabing was executed Friday afternoon (May 20), after an 11th hour appeal was rejected by a five-judge panel. The Singapore Police Force said in a statement that Kho "had his death sentence carried out on May 20, 2016, at Changi Prison Complex" and that he had been accorded full due process under the law.

Kho's execution concluded a long-running case in which he had made multiple appeals since being convicted of murder and sentenced to death on July 30, 2010.

In 2008, Kho killed a construction worker while robbing him. He had hit the man repeatedly on the head with a piece of wood. The victim suffered 14 fractures to the skull with severe haemorrhage in three areas and died six days later.

Kho was scheduled to hang on Friday morning, but his lawyer Gino Hardial Singh filed a criminal motion against the death sentence two days ago. This appeal was rejected on Thursday.

On Thursday, Kho's lawyer Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss filed a civil application in the High Court to seek a stay of execution, but she was rejected, The Straits Times reported.

However, she was allowed to file an appeal if she met an 11pm deadline. She managed to do so, and Kho got a reprieve, the report added. During the lengthy legal process, Kho and his family members petitioned to President Tony Tan Keng Yam for clemency a few times, but were turned down.

On Friday morning, the Court of Appeal dismissed the last-minute appeals and said that Jabing's multiple court applications after the conclusion of his appeal were an abuse of court process.

The Court of Appeal also said that "the court should not be seen as a device to undermine the legal process. We cannot allow applications made at the eleventh hour, one after another".

It added: "The legal system will fall into disrepute if we allow the system to be scuttled this way".